Fear not, for I am with you; I will bring your offspring from the east, and from the west I will gather you. I will say to the north, Give up, and to the south, Do not withhold; bring my sons from afar and my daughters from the end of the earth, everyone who is called by my name, whom I created for my glory, whom I formed and made. Isaiah 43:5-7

What are you doing back?

In early June we got to take a long plane ride. Although the ride was pleasant and it was cool to watch videos …

Jet lag soon catches up with you. (Toby and Annika both did a much better job of adjusting to the time than their mom and dad did!)

Seeing Grandpa and Granna

and Grandma and Grandpa

We are back in the United States for a few weeks. Many people have asked “What are you doing here?” We are currently back in the United States because our visas are being changed over from “student” status to “worker” status. The Mongolian government enacted a new law which requires individuals to leave the country while this change is being made. When we added up the costs of being outside of Mongolia for at least 6 weeks, coming back to the United States was the logical place (not to mention the desires of grandparents to see the kids!). It was encouraging to have everyone greet us (maybe we can leave the flags an banners behind next time?), especially my Mom who is undergoing chemotherapy.

Fishing!

It’s been a bit strange being back in the States- the culture shock comes and goes. For instance, Toby didn’t know what ketchup packets were at McDonalds. Annika remembered them, but Toby didn’t! During the first several weeks we worked on getting all our check-ups and visits to the dentist done. It’s been great to see how quickly Annika took to learning how to ride a bike!

Way to go Annika!

We have recently learned that our visas are going to take a while longer than what we expected. When living overseas you learn to expect that things don’t always go as planned. Our tickets with Korean Air are changeable for this very reason. Unfortunately, we learned that we cannot be guaranteed to get back to Mongolia until early September. (We don’t want to get caught on standby in Seoul for 2 weeks). July – August is tourist season in Mongolia and there is only one flight a day to Ulaanbaatar, all of which are full. But we’re looking forward to going back and are fully intending to go back.

Thank you to all the churches who have generously allowed us to share about Mongolia. We greatly appreciate your support and openness. It also has been wonderful to re-connect with many friends and the many who follow this blog! (we will be trying to post more).

Because we will be in the States longer than we expected, we are currently working on connecting with other churches. If you are interested in hearing about the work in Mongolia, please email us or leave us a comment about how we might be able to connect with your church in August.